There is an acute “show don’t tell” problem with the way the Revs are written in that we are constantly TOLD they are out there liberating nations and we are never SHOWN them actually doing it. (No, one panel cutaways to offscreen wars doesn’t count)
And to make it worse, the one big Revolutionary army conflict we are actually expected to see play out onscreen is the one they will fail at. Because we will follow the revs in the Final war against Imu but they are obviously destined to lose that conflict since it’s Luffy that has to win that one.
also no, this isn’t about “saving Dragon” for the endgame because Oda could’ve just had one of the Rev commanders be like a main character in one of the many arcs in the story with very little involvement from Dragon if any at all.
The closest Oda came to having a dedicated Rev arc was Reverie but then we later told the Revs only survived that because the Admirals started fighting each other mid way instead of beating them.
There should have been one arc where Luffy and co arrive to do their business but a squad of the Revs is there doing equal or even more work than the strawhats throughout the arc (Also we know Oda has been fine with sidelining the strawhats so you can’t complain about that either). And Luffy can have the big fight as the Rev commander is having an equal or more important fight with the second primary antagonist of whatever arc. (Again, we have seen this before with Punk hazard and Law fighting Vergo while Luffy fought a Caeser who is weaker)
Oda is relying too much on telling us that the revs matter than showing it. Even in the final war when the entire world fights the CDs, it will be Luffy’s pirate alliance and the countries LUFFY has saved that join together to fight Imu, we will not even hear from all the supposed “dozens of countries liberated by The Revs”… The revs will arrive for the final war with no sign that they have liberated like maybe 3-4 times the countries Luffy has liberated and then they’ll just lose… While Alabasta, Skypiea, Water seven, fishman island, Drum kingdom, Elbaf, Dressrosa, possibly WCI, and Wano will all rock up for Luffy… Imagine if one of these countries was from an arc where the Revs were the heroes, then there would be like a visible impact to the Revs at the end even if they eventually lose
And to make it worse, the one big Revolutionary army conflict we are actually expected to see play out onscreen is the one they will fail at. Because we will follow the revs in the Final war against Imu but they are obviously destined to lose that conflict since it’s Luffy that has to win that one.
also no, this isn’t about “saving Dragon” for the endgame because Oda could’ve just had one of the Rev commanders be like a main character in one of the many arcs in the story with very little involvement from Dragon if any at all.
The closest Oda came to having a dedicated Rev arc was Reverie but then we later told the Revs only survived that because the Admirals started fighting each other mid way instead of beating them.
There should have been one arc where Luffy and co arrive to do their business but a squad of the Revs is there doing equal or even more work than the strawhats throughout the arc (Also we know Oda has been fine with sidelining the strawhats so you can’t complain about that either). And Luffy can have the big fight as the Rev commander is having an equal or more important fight with the second primary antagonist of whatever arc. (Again, we have seen this before with Punk hazard and Law fighting Vergo while Luffy fought a Caeser who is weaker)
Oda is relying too much on telling us that the revs matter than showing it. Even in the final war when the entire world fights the CDs, it will be Luffy’s pirate alliance and the countries LUFFY has saved that join together to fight Imu, we will not even hear from all the supposed “dozens of countries liberated by The Revs”… The revs will arrive for the final war with no sign that they have liberated like maybe 3-4 times the countries Luffy has liberated and then they’ll just lose… While Alabasta, Skypiea, Water seven, fishman island, Drum kingdom, Elbaf, Dressrosa, possibly WCI, and Wano will all rock up for Luffy… Imagine if one of these countries was from an arc where the Revs were the heroes, then there would be like a visible impact to the Revs at the end even if they eventually lose
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