Character Discussion How would you rewrite Big Mom? Here are my ideas.

#1
I am far from being a fan of Big Mom and Kaido, to say the very least. But there are good aspects to them. In my opinion, Big Mom has the most fascinating crew motif and character theme in the entire series. I love her backstory, her Devil Fruit powers, the variety of her crew's designs and Devil Fruits, the environment of Totto Land, her proactivity towards the Straw Hats, and the fact that her crew is the closest Emperor crew to a superpower's military might. She's my favorite Emperor on paper. Kaido has been the most impressive character in combat yet, living up to his titles as the World's Strongest Creature and an Emperor of the Sea.

However, in my opinion their cons have vastly outweighed their pros for a long time. Big Mom has easily been the most disappointing Emperor in terms of demonstrating her prowess as a captain, Emperor of the Sea, and supposed top-tier character. She's likely the most disappointing One Piece character period, right ahead of Tsuru and Boa Hancock. Her character design, aspects of her personality, ability to hold her crew together, combat ability, and her level of gravitas have fallen flat compared to the other Emperors. I take Blackbeard more seriously yet he's the newest Emperor with less screentime than Linlin. In contrast, Kaido is a phenomenal fighter, has his own active goals, and the plot takes him very seriously. However, he has come across as a boring brute and the Beasts Pirates' animal motif is stale.

I've always wanted to rewrite Big Mom into a competent Emperor. Hope you enjoy this post. Let me know your Big Mom rewrite ideas in the comments below.


Character Design: I don't know what Oda was doing when designing Big Mom. I believe a character's design should either reflect their personality, or be memorable. IMO Big Mom's design doesn't reflect her personality besides her gluttony, an aspect that was abandoned during Wano anyway. It's not memorable either, at least compared to the other Emperors. Both of Blackbeard's character designs are reminiscent of a stereotypical pirate, which is everything you need to know about the man: he's gluttonous, greedy, rich, and desires everything the world has to offer. Whitebeard and Kaido's designs both tell the audience they are physically powerful, extremely intimidating, battle hardened warriors. Shanks' simple design tells us he's seemingly a calm pirate who just wants to enjoy the simple things in life, who has been through a share of battles judging from the scar. The male Emperors' designs are memorable, exude competence and experience, and tell something about their personalities or pirate career. While Linlin only wears a moo-moo dress.

I think Big Mom's character design should tell a similar story. She's a gluttonous schemer who loves sweets, but she's also supposed to know how to maneuver the pirate world. She's an Emperor in a literal sense: she's the queen of Totto Land and controls many other territories, her army has thousands of ships and soldiers, and her information network tracks people in the Four Blues and learned how to climb Wano's waterfall. She was also raised in Elbaf for awhile, and somehow knows Elbaf Giant sword techniques(i.e. Ikoku).

So I think her design, complemented with a certain timeline change, should be based on vikings. A design that reflects her familiarity with Elbaf and status as a Pirate Emperor and Queen. As a result of keeping up her vast experience and reputation, eternal youth, and changed goals, she rigorously trained her body to the point of being a buff, slim woman reminiscent of canon Linlin(in her 20s & 30s). Big Mom did not skip leg day, so her body has long, sturdy legs like Whitebeard. She has a scar or two.

Combat boots: https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/71DjzxvhbCL._AC_UX679_.jpg
Combat boots w/ this color & additional features: https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/1...ver-knee-boots_2_y_1800x1800.jpg?v=1587932588
Current outfit style #1: 39870749_v4_13_11062015_bw_18420-2.jpg
Current outfit style #2: https://armstreet.com/catalogue/ful...wolves-embroidery-gudrun-the-wolfdottir-1.jpg
Pink captain's coat similar to these: https://i.etsystatic.com/5533372/r/il/7aa86c/1172567159/il_1588xN.1172567159_aehs.jpg
Platinum rings on each finger w/ different colors

Goals & Hype: I think Big Mom's stagnation as a captain, and lack of buildup during pre-timeskip OP, is a very big problem with her. I could forgive her character design and personality, if Big Mom was consistently established as a legendary pirate with her own successful agenda. Roger, Whitebeard, Rayleigh, Garp and Sengoku are world-renowned even in the four Blues and mentioned in books. They have titles and unmatched infamy in their respective occupations. Kaido and Blackbeard take massive steps to advance schemes and reinforce armies. Meanwhile Linlin, the pirate with an empire and a potentially longer career than Roger, is treated as a stagnant hag with no title who sits on her throne all day. Oda certainly gave her goals, but Linlin took no steps to advance them. She wanted to become Pirate King but took no steps to get the other Road Poneglyphs or Robin. She's missing three races in Totto Land but doesn't try to occupy Elbaf, or search for Lunarians, or go to Sky Islands. And unrelated, but the lack of infamy applies to the supposed legend Tsuru too.

So instead, Rewrite Linlin's goal is to create an empire separate from the corrupt World Government, Totto Land. My version of Big Mom wants to prove that the World Government is not almighty. She would constantly annex islands in the New World, and even in the Four Blues on occasion. Compared to canon she has more manpower and territory, and a greater information network. Because of this empire and her long career, she constantly fought powerful and legendary figures while pregnant, from Roger/Whitebeard to the Admirals/Garp. She ascended to being The Strongest Woman in the World, one of only two people on par with Gol D. Roger and Whitebeard. Everyone in the world knows Big Mom. People fear, respect, or admire her. She is mentioned in books as a Conqueror. Whitebeard mentions her to Shanks when discussing "people who knew the seas." And in terms of intelligence her strategic mind is in the league of Whitebeard and Sengoku, and knows the truth behind Mother Carmel's death.

She would also gain control of Elbaf a few years before the timeskip. She needs it especially with Rewrite Kaido having Samurai in his personal forces.

Feats: Big Mom's arsenal has been a mixed bag in my opinion. Most fans agree that in terms of stats, she is equal to Kaido and in some cases slightly stronger. However, many fans also agree that Big Mom is an awful fighter who wasted her many skills. Imo her power of "soul manipulation" has been wasted potential. Canon Big Mom is a jack of all trades, master of none. Big Mom in my rewrite is someone who uses her arsenal to its full potential.
  • She is a Haki master as expected, unlocking advanced applications of all three Haki types. Her future sight is superior to Katakuri's future sight, able to see minutes into the future. She is a master hand-to-hand fighter like Garp. She is a top-class swordsman in the realm of Mihawk and Vista
  • Due to having more battle experience and broader soul manipulation than Brook, and "higher" drive than canon Linlin, rewrite Linlin's Soru Soru no Mi is on a completely different league than either of their fruits. It is also Awakened.
    • Eternal youth via lifespan consumption and self-soul manipulation
    • It possesses some of the Yomi Yomi's abilities: astral projection, sensing of others' souls, freezing aura
    • Many more soul manipulation abilities than canon Soru Soru
    • Special Homies that BM can mentally control like Logias. The thundercloud Thor, literal sun Surtur, blizzard Skadi, and the stone sphere Gaia. Each one can change form, create near-infinite amounts of a substance, influence the environment & create massive elemental storms, and are subject to Logia Awakening. Thor is water, lightning and wind. Surtur is fire, magma, and light. Skadi is water, ice and snow. Gaia is earth and mud. In addition to these, the bicorne Tyr can transform into any kind of sword. The elemental Homies are normally accessories on Big Mom's body.
    • Emphasis on how adaptable and versatile Linlin is
    • Stronger, human-shaped Incarnations
    • Lifespan sacrifice is not required to increase body mass or self-heal
  • Her non-Devil Fruit related weapon is the spear Gungnir. In Norse mythology, it is the spear of Odin.

Personality: Simply put, she will be a good parent and ruler. As @uyuu put it, she dearly loves and nurtures her people. Has a sweet tooth but nothing overboard, as Hunger Pangs only occurred during the rookie years. The Charlotte Family was raised hearing her stories of piracy and war, seeing her inspire people, and occasionally witnessing Linlin on the battlefield.

Linlin forbids child abuse in her territory. She keeps her husbands that are good parents and banishes the abusive ones. Canon Linlin's attitude created a far less capable crew; fear=incompetence while admiration=passion. As a result, the rewrite Big Mom Pirates are exponentially stronger than the canon crew.
 
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#4
She dies in wci because of the cake or is incapacitaded in a similar manner as Polyphemus. Dragging her to Wano in the end felt as a very poorly written choice. It felt as if Oda had different plans for her but later decided to rush the end of the character.
 
#5
- A wise, kind slim grandma like in fairy tales. Has many war and strategic experiences from the past. Has a sweet tooth but nothing overboard. Dearly loves and sincerely nurtures both her family and her garden. She likes to tell stories of old, and welcome worthy opponents, disciples, and allies alike.



- But whenever she wills it, she is The Queen of Souls. While she is not capable of brawling, she instills her soul into any element, capable to make Soul Claim over that element. Her dress will be the elements itself. Sparkling blizzard (Laufey) as her scarf, lightning (Thor) as her staff, fire (Surtur) as her crown, telekinetically-controlled stones constantly forming a floating magic stone carpet for her to walk on, etc. Lightning, fire, earth, wind, dance with life around her like a fairy tale, a living elemental fortress protecting her from any harm while also killing and destroying anything dare to oppose her.



- Each elemental souls (i'll call them Eidolons), makes her capable to absorb and do a Soul Claim over elemental attacks and make the surrounding element hers, thus she can't be damaged by any element that is Soul-Claimed.

- inserting her Ice Eidolon's soul into an element-controlling organism will result in internal battle for control over element. For example if she insert her Eidolon into Aokiji's ice body, it will trigger the battle to control that logia body. So that Aokiji will have to constantly fight the soul of Eidolon trying to take control of Aokiji's body and ice attacks, obviously compromising his fighting abilities where BM can just use other Eidolons to attack Aokiji externally and convincingly win the fight. The way to repel the soul of Eidolon is superior mind, conviction, belief, intelligence or whatever that is recognized as worthy opponent by The Eidolons.

- Brook's Yomi2 Fruit is a fabricated fruit, it's later revealed to be an Eidolon of BM's Soru2 fruit's Awakening for Linlin to watch over The Strawhats to determine their massive role in the future.
 
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#6
Kill her story on WCI...
She dies in wci because of the cake or is incapacitaded in a similar manner as Polyphemus. Dragging her to Wano in the end felt as a very poorly written choice. It felt as if Oda had different plans for her but later decided to rush the end of the character.
I think killing Big Mom's story in WCI is just as bad as anything Oda wrote about her. I think after WCI she should have been ignored until after Kaido's defeat, or their alliance should have been executed in a way that implemented Big Mom's forces and ambition.

- A wise, kind slim grandma like in fairy tales. Has many war and strategic experiences from the past. Has a sweet tooth but nothing overboard. Dearly loves and sincerely nurtures both her family and her garden. She likes to tell stories of old, and welcome worthy opponents, disciples, and allies alike.



- But whenever she wills it, she is The Queen of Souls. She instills her soul into any element, capable to make Soul Claim over that element. Her dress will be the elements itself. Sparkling blizzard (Laufey) as her scarf, lightning (Thor) as her staff, fire (Surtur) as her crown, telekinetically-controlled stones constantly forming a floating magic stone carpet for her to walk on, etc.



- Each elemental souls (i'll call them Eidolons), makes her capable to absorb and do a Soul Claim over elemental attacks and make the surrounding element hers, thus she can't be damaged by any element that is Soul-Claimed. For extreme example she can insert her Ice Eidolon's soul into Aokiji's ice body, triggering the battle to control that logia body. So that Aokiji will have to internally fight the soul of Eidolon trying to take control of Aokiji's body and ice attacks, obviously compromising his fighting abilities where BM can just use other Eidolons to attack Aokiji externally and convincingly win the fight. The way to repel the soul of Eidolon is superior mind, conviction, belief, intelligence or whatever that is recognized as worthy opponent by The Eidolons.

- Brook's Yomi2 Fruit is a fabricated fruit, it's later revealed to be an Eidolon of BM's Soru2 fruit's Awakening for Linlin to watch over The Strawhats to determine their massive role in the future.
- Great personality change. I was wondering how to describe a similar concept, so I'll input it into my post to expand on rewrite Big Mom's personality. Great job!!

- I did not think about making the Homies into BM's accessories. That is brilliant and much more combat efficient! The magic stone carpet is a cool idea too.

- Soul Claim is a fucking badass name for special Homie creation. Honestly, I always thought about this Logia counterattack when analyzing BM's fruit. The Eidolons are a magnificent ability for such an experienced Emperor, and it takes advantage of the "emotion" aspect of stealing souls.

- That is some 4D chess game fuckery.
 
#7
I would make her more protective as a mother… instead of a bully

and I would make the sole reason why she goes after Luffy is because she got mistaken into thinking Luffy killed one of her sons while it was done by CP0 and they covered it up with some DF ability maybe even created some type of fake recording showing fake Luffy killing him and that’s why she kept on chasing him till now

I also, would NEVER make her character childish like that… Screaming wedding cake.. ugh.. the most boring shit

As for her design or powers.. she is fine as she is….
 
#8
I think killing Big Mom's story in WCI is just as bad as anything Oda wrote about her. I think after WCI she should have been ignored until after Kaido's defeat, or their alliance should have been executed in a way that implemented Big Mom's forces and ambition.
If her story ended in WCI, there would be no alliance between her and Kaido which in turn would make the raid's success more believable since they're only dealing with 1 Yonko and 1 less YC tier enemy...
 

TheAncientCenturion

I will never forgive Oda
‎‎‎
#10
While I don't like the idea of Linlin being on par with Roger and Whitebeard, I do like your write up of how to make Linlin an enjoyable (and better) character while hoisting her on that level.

I'd emphasize how horrible she is and how petty she is. Make the Charlotte family afraid of her, not because of hunger pains but because Linlin is not an understanding captain, especially to her own family. She sees her family as extensions of herself—as homies essentially—so when they do not succeed she takes it exceedingly bad. Punishments for failing her is hellish and someone like Katakuri gets his great reputation for always covering for the failures of other members of the Charlotte Family.

She can keep some food quirks, but I wouldn't have her crippled by it like in WCI Arc. Linlin's goals would be shifted to accommodate for her collection hobbies she showed in canon. It's not enough for her to have every race in Tottoland, she must have every culture, every type of animal and any unique art in it as well. She wants the entire world within her borders and she'll burn the rest of the world to achieve it. This would all stem from her time in the orphanage and her birthday, where each orphan is from different islands and gives Linlin wildly different but all appreciated gifts. She interprets this boiling of cultures & identities as a means of giving herself gratification and pleasure, jading her world view from that young age.

Appearance wise, I'd have her be a little chubby but not to the degrees Oda went. Keep her young design, pack on the pounds and give her some wrinkles and a scar. It shows that she's no stranger to violence but the degradation of her body is due to her own self indulgence as opposed to combat.

For Combat & Haki, I wouldn't change much. Put a higher focus on how adaptable Linlin is, she turns the entire environment against you and can reshape it. Imagine Muki Tensei used by Kabuto in Naruto or Overhaul's quirk in My Hero Academia as a loose representation. She puts homies in the ground and she can terraform it or turn it into a weapon against you, having attacks coming from behind and underneath you. As a fighter, her worth is having a very powerful core of abilities and then being able to adapt and change on the fly with her devil fruit. There's no opponent she can't grow to fight.

I'd change her "iron balloon" defense into a passive coating of Conquerors Haki, giving her freakishly powerful physical blows and great defensive abilities. There'd be a drawback of Linlin never having mastered this ability, it's entirely innate to her and suits her purposes as is. I figure it's a good pay off for what she's got.

Tweaking her role in the plot, Linlin actively antagonizes Luffy and co. after Fishman Island, be it sending some of her officers after him or having Pekoms be in Dressrosa specifically for the Strawhat Pirates. In WCI Arc, Linlin blunders mostly because of the pressure she puts on her own crew & family, causing their stress to create mistakes as they desperately wish to not be the target of Linlin's ire. Still, I wouldn't have her leaving that arc without a bit of recompensation on the make-shift alliance against her.

Vinsmoke Judge & Capone Bege both die in the arc, holding Linlin back & luring her away respectively. The Sun Pirates are imprisoned and wounded badly alongside Vinsmoke Ichiji & Niji. The Germa Kingdom itself is in utter ruins with Linlin's crew working hard to salvage what they can get.

In Wano Arc, King the Wildfire doesn't humiliate her (Instead he can humiliate Smoothie and co. on a separate ship). She meets with Kaido, they spar before forming the alliance same as before. On the Rooftop, Linlin is more proactive and takes some hits before helping Kaido fight the Supernova. Linlin still takes on Law & Kidd, but manages to beat them in round 1—not before taking 2x awakening attacks from each—before she is confronted by literally every character in the Live Floor who is doing nothing. This means Marco, X Drake, Apoo, Denjiro, Kawamatsu and at least one of the Numbers.

I'd have a little call back to Dressrosa and Luffy's 10 minute recharge by having these fighters giving the Supernova Duo time to catch their breaths as Linlin goes through this gauntlet in 2~ chapters before the Supernova Duo stand back up. Linlin is hit by Puncture Willie and severely damaged as Law collapses from exhaustion, Kidd then collects all the metal on Onigashima to fight her. Linlin fuses with her primary homies, becoming a pseudo fire/lightning logia, and clashes with Kidd. As she begins to lose the fight, Linlin turns much of Kidd's scrap metal into homies themselves before Kidd and Linlin have a CoC clash, resulting in Kidd winning and controlling the metal despite their homie status. Kidd punches Linlin off Onigashima, forming a small crater somewhere in Wano.

Post-Wano, Linlin would be shriveled up and weakened as her homies faded with her power She's vindictive and angry but physically, much older and more feeble than before. Her story ends as she's barking orders at her family in Tottoland, only for the Charlottes to leave & abandon this weakened Linlin to a lonely palace as she struggles to conjure up a measly homie.
 
#11
Post-Wano, Linlin would be shriveled up and weakened as her homies faded with her power She's vindictive and angry but physically, much older and more feeble than before. Her story ends as she's making orders of her family in Tottoland, only for the Charlottes to leave & abandon this weakened Linlin to a lonely palace as she struggles to conjure up a measly homie.
That ending is brutal 10/10
 
#14
I hoped Oda could at least grant her the capability to use her CoC more proficiently. I would have made her character more attractive and less fat and more badass instead of just creepy to begin with:josad:
 
#15
I would make her more protective as a mother… instead of a bully

and I would make the sole reason why she goes after Luffy is because she got mistaken into thinking Luffy killed one of her sons while it was done by CP0 and they covered it up with some DF ability maybe even created some type of fake recording showing fake Luffy killing him and that’s why she kept on chasing him till now

I also, would NEVER make her character childish like that… Screaming wedding cake.. ugh.. the most boring shit

As for her design or powers.. she is fine as she is….
- Hard agree
- Pretty bad idea
- Hard agree on this too. Screaming wedding cake was awful.

If her story ended in WCI, there would be no alliance between her and Kaido which in turn would make the raid's success more believable since they're only dealing with 1 Yonko and 1 less YC tier enemy...
For sure, but her story can't just end on WCI with the manpower the Straw Hats and Bege had. At minimum, her crew is supposed to be on par with Marine HQ. I think her story's end should have been saved for after Wano or EoS, when her own ambitions could be brought to the forefront.

I hoped Oda could at least grant her the capability to use her CoC more proficiently. I would have made her character more attractive and less fat and more badass instead of just creepy to begin with:josad:
We speak the same language! :D
 
#17
There are many things to fix about BM, and some were already mentionned and I'd like to add two:

- Make her a more proficient haki user, especially in terms of Conqueror ( An emperor can't even control her CoC seriously?) and Observation ( maybe a less developped version of Future Sight to let Katakuri be the expert in this field but especially combine CoO with her DF, giving her the same surveillance abilities as Ener)

- Make her actually in control of her empire, because WCI gave me the impression that it's Streusen who's actually in charge of things with Perospero and Katakuri leading on their own. Being a more active and competent ruler will really do her character a lot of good
 
#19
Literally just treat her like a real villain and don't spam plot convenience.

For example. I think the idea of big mom's eating disorder makes no sense. It actually makes no sense how big mom could survive as a top tier for this long if she's this fucked up. Its just one more in a bucket of things that makes big mom a joke. How about, instead of turning a major villain into a clown, why not just balance things out by giving the SHs more allies?

For example, what if towards the end of WCI, Kid and Law appeared to help Luffy escape. We get the explanation that Law saved Kid from Kaido's prison on the condition that he help save Luffy from big mom, or something like that.
This way, not only do you not need to nerf big mom nearly as much, but you can actually build up the fight that ultimately brings her down.


Similarly, what if during wano kuni, instead of turning big mom into a retard for half the arc, Oda balanced the odds by introducing Rayleigh as an ally. This way, not only can big mom remain a threat, but Oda now has a credible way to power up the supernova for the fights against the yonko to actually be good. Instead of ACoC effectively being an asspull power up, Luffy and Zoro just learn/awaken it before the raid.

If Oda was smart, he would give Kid ACoC instead of awakening. That way, he actually appears as a rival of Luffy and Law's. I feel like I need to justify Kid's powerlevel being what it is because Oda did such a shit job with it. Give Kid ACoC, and let Big Mom actually look like a top tier in their fight.
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Instead of making the heroes stronger, Oda makes the villains weaker(unless the hero is Luffy, then he just gets an asspull power up)
 
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