Foreword
Hello, everyone.
A year ago, in an attempt to manifest my hopes and dreams into the universe, I declared that 2023 would be the Year of Monet. In the event that this failed, I promised that I would publicly hold a funeral for Monet, as it is significantly less likely that she'll appear past the Egghead Arc where I initially proposed she would reappear.
In my defense, I didn't expect Egghead to still be going. Unfortunate for me, really, because that means that even as the year ended, my dreams haven't actually been dashed and I still hold hope in my heart that it can happen in 2024.
But I am nothing if not a man of my word. The year ended without any sign of Monet, so even if Oda still plans to bring her back to me later, it would only serve to bring me shame to move the goalpost and put this off. Frankly, it would just be really funny if she came back after I publicly admitted that I was wrong, and that's one egg on my face that I would happily accept.
Now, let's begin. Ahem...
Eulogy
Monet was only present in One Piece's canon for approximately fifty chapters. Many people found her forgettable, others only remember her for her unique status as the only female character to explicitly die outside of a flashback. Despite this, despite how small of a role she played or for how short of a time, Monet managed to garner a small but significant following.
Some people liked her for design, others for her personality, and others for the many mysteries that were perceived to be around her: the tattoo that was shown in but a single panel, the astronomy textbooks seen on her desk, her strange willingness to abandon her human limbs for those of a bird, her seemingly in-tact heart after Caesar was shown stabbing it. There are a thousand questions surrounding her, and these questions served as inspiration for many theorists in our community.
I am one such fan. I have been asked before why I like Monet as much as I do, and I always say the same thing: because she inspired me. Before I learned about the theories surrounding her, I honestly wasn't that big of a fan of One Piece at all. I had been watching or reading it for years already, and I definitely enjoyed it, but if you'd asked me back then what I actually thought of it, I'd probably just say "it's better than Bleach and Naruto." And I wasn't exactly a fan of those at the time either. One Piece was just another manga to read at the time, a way to kill time. I didn't feel any connection to the world, I just liked the fights.
Then Monet died.
This wasn't the moment that everything changed, but I had no idea it was the harbinger of it. I was shocked, for sure, that Oda willingly killed off a character in such spectacular fashion aside from Ace and Whitebeard. It really seemed like a new era had begun, one where death was always a possibility in the formerly and notoriously deathless series. I had heard whispers that Monet might join the Straw Hats, whispers that I thought were silly and paid no mind to, and in response to her death thought "welp. Guess she's not joining after all."
It was about a year and a half later that I remembered those whispers. Luffy had just revealed Gear 4th, which prompted me to reread One Piece in its entirety to better understand why everyone was so excited by this development, and in the process I found myself recalling the strange suggestion that the one-off villain might be Straw Hat material. So I put my reread on pause and did a little digging, and I found a theory. All of the little details I mentioned earlier, all laid out neatly on a blog, and suddenly I felt the world in front of me changing. Expanding.
This one minor, forgettable character had so much detail packed into so little screen time. Was everything in One Piece like this?
So I did a little more digging. And sure enough, yes! Every location, every word in the glossary, every background character with so much as a name had a much deeper, richer history than I ever would have guessed! Some may have just been gags, sure, but Oda clearly took the time to consider how every little puzzle piece fit into the complete picture! It was simply astonishing!
I suddenly felt a much greater appreciation for why One Piece was so special. I knew it was popular, but I never really got why it was considered the best. Now, though, I could see it. I could see the intricacies of the piece in front of me, but I needed to see more. So I started to ask my own questions, formulate my own theories, and find my own answers. Sure, I was wrong most of the time, but that was never the point. I was having so much fun navigating the maze that I didn't mind hitting constant dead ends.
But the questions alone weren't enough to keep me in the maze; it was the people I would run into around every corner. I've met so many wonderful, passionate people since becoming a One Piece theorist, people who have encouraged and inspired me to keep pushing through.
It's one thing to shout my thoughts into the void, it's another to share them with people who can share their own in turn. Without Monet, I never would have even known all of these people existed, much less had the opportunity to talk to them and hear what they had to say. I've said it before, and I'll say it again: Monet is my favorite character because she gave me One Piece, both the story and its community.
I've been flying this flag for going on nine years. I've said stupid and baseless things like suggesting that Monet's tattoo is similar to Big Mom's and her real name might be "Charlotte Alaska," and I've said things that I still stand by wholeheartedly, like her decision to become a harpy being inspired by childhood exposure to the Lunarians. For every word of it, I've been met with support and mockery alike, and all of it has been worth it. At the end of the day, whether I was right or wrong, I've had so much fun writing about this topic, and I know people have had fun reading what I've written. Even the people who disagreed, I genuinely hope you had fun lambasting me, that you spent your time in a way that made you feel joy. Even if you were just laughing at me acting like a clown, I hope you posted your feedback with a smile.
Even if everything I "know" about Monet is just headcanon, even if the Monet in my mind is unrecognizable from the one in canon, that won't change the fact that she's made me smile just about every day for the last nine years. Collecting figures, commissioning art at conventions, ranting at friends and customers at work, making a DnD character whose story revolves around saving a pastiche of her; I've found ways to derive joy from a character with less than fifty chapters worth of existence for just shy of a decade. I know people who wish they could be passionate about something for so long.
And even if she never comes back, even if she really is gone forever, that's not going to kill me. She's still going to be my favorite character. The only difference is that I won't be looking forward to what she could be, I'll simply be looking back at what she was. And what she was was my inspiration. My guiding light who brought me to all of you, who got me to look at the world in a different way, and who gave me a fun way to spend my days. Someday I'll likely move on; I've certainly found countless things to get excited about and focus on in the last decade, so it's not like she was literally my whole world. She's just where I tended to come back to, a safe and reliable space to find refuge when times were tough. But who knows, I've made it a decade already, so maybe she really will be my forever fave. Maybe it'll turn out that her not coming back will let me carry her in my heart infinitely longer than her return would have, and I'll still be talking about how much of an inspiration she was to me for the rest of my life. Maybe I'll become an author in my own right, using all of this creative energy to realize the story I always wanted to see. Even if she never comes back, I'll find a way to keep smiling and keep dreaming.
People's dreams never die, and mine are no different.
Afterword
Thank you all for letting me share my story. I know this was more about me than about Monet, but I hope this snapshot of my life has helped even one person understand why I've been so passionate about this topic for so long.
If you were a fan of Monet's, if you were a dreamer like me, please feel free to share your experiences with her in the comments. Tell us what she meant to you, how you became a fan, any stories you may have about your time with her. If you weren't a fan and only have hurtful words to share, I hope you'll choose today to be kind and keep them to yourself.
As I said, if Monet comes back even after all of this, great, I'm used to ironic strokes of luck like that. But if she doesn't, I refuse to let 2024 be a bad year for me over it. 2023 was rough for a litany of reasons, and I kept thinking "if I have to go through this, just let me have Monet back." But this year I won't fall into that hole. This year, I'm not going to let my happiness be dependent on some tenuous cosmic deal with an indifferent universe, I'm going to find happiness in what I have and strive to create happiness where there isn't any to be found. It's what I've been doing the whole time, really, it just took letting go to realize it.
I hope you all are able to find your happiness this year, too.
Thank you, everyone.
Thank you, Monet.
Harpy New Year.
