This is all going to be a heavily opinionated post, but I figured I’d put my frustrations with this character down in a post format.
Oda has so far removed Luffy the Pirate Messiah from the realm of being a relatable protagonist that he has completely and utterly removed all tension from OP as a manga, and inadvertently destroyed his own story as a result. At this point, Luffy just has so much going for him that he is impossible to relate to, and the unhealthy messages that Oda accidentally communicates are plentiful. I’m going to put to words why Oda’s philosophy on writing Luffy and his conflicts is so unhealthy that One Piece itself has become a self-destructive manga with a terrible messaging for young readers.
To be fair, OP is not the only manga that does this shit but it is the one I will focus on here.
Luffy is a protagonist chosen by destiny for success. He does not work hard, he does not train, he doesn’t truly struggle anymore, and as such he is simply someone who success just comes to automatically. The illusion that a lot of people seem to be trapped in that Luffy succeeds because he works hard or has great willpower, is an illusion that needs to be shattered, because the fact about Luffy is that he is simply chosen by the Hand of Fate and will succeed even if he spent absolutely no time training (which is basically the case anyway).
So, let’s talk about it:
I. Let Us Count His Holy Blessings
Let us count all of the ways that the Pirate Christ was pre-destined for greatness before he even laid eyes on a Jolly Roger:
1. He was born the Grandson of Garp the Marine Christ, and Dragon the criminal Christ, gifted with genetic
god-hood before he had even opened his eyes for the first time.
2. He was also born with Conqueror’s Haki, an ability that only
one in a million people are born with, though compared to the rest of his blessings this seems a bit trite tbh since Luffy has now learned an ability that is apparently even uncommon among Conqueror’s Haki users
3. At the age of like, 7, this kid
personally met a Yonko who also sailed with the Pirate King and was
personally passed down his hat from the Pirate King. Oh and also, Imu apparently has some obsession with Straw Hats, meaning the
literal god-king of the OP world also apparently has a vested interest in just
one of Luffy’s many blessings
4. He grew up alongside the son of the Pirate King, and these two constantly sparred and fought each other as children in between bouts of Luffy receiving training from the Marine Christ
5. He was
personally taught Haki by First Mate of the Pirate King. This dude
literally swam across continents to teach Luffy Haki
6. The most beautiful woman in the world, who hates all men btw, slobbers like a dog over this kid who is
literally 14 years younger than her and who didn’t learn her name until weeks after she had initially fallen in love with him
7. And as if that shit wasn’t enough, now apparently Luffy’s Rubber fruit isn’t just some rubber fruit, now apparently this shit is like some highly-desired WG fruit that is about to be retconned into mythical status.
And we aren’t even finished learning about all the ways that Luffy has been blessed. We still don’t know the full details behind his connection to Joyboy or how he’ll fulfill Whitebeard’s Marineford Prophecy. At this point I wouldn’t be surprised if next chapter we found out that Luffy’s urine was actually magic urine that cured cancer and turned Cock Roaches into Majestic Stallions. Like one day Luffy got bored, so he pissed into the ocean, a fish drank his urine, and that’s how Kaido was born.
If there’s anyone in the fandom who believes Luffy succeeds because he simply works really hard (even though we rarely see him train), or he simply wants it bad enough and never gives up, let me explain why that idea is bullshit:
II. Eustass Kid and Trafalgar Law
How anyone can think Luffy doesn’t win through destiny when his greatest rivals job harder than Big Mom is beyond me. Oda originally introduced Law and Kid as Luffy’s “rival” characters more than anyone else in the Worst Generation, and through the timeskip, these are the only two members of the Worst Generation who have had similar ambitions to Luffy. Law originally approached Luffy with plans to take down Kaido but then switching to Doffy, and Kid originally targeted Shanks but switched to Kaido after being defeated by him.
Both of these characters have so far failed miserably at their ambitions in the New World whereas Luffy has steamrolled every obstacle that has come into his path, minus Kaido but stay tuned because his ass whooping is imminent. So what gives? Why do Law and Kid fail where Luffy, blessed be his holy name, succeeds? Put simply, because Luffy is the Pirate Christ who will succeed no matter what. He has been chosen by destiny and cannot fail.
Law tried to use intellect to take down Doflamingo, constructing a well-thought out plan to politically maneuver Doflamingo into defeat: and that failed miserably.
Oda then gave Law a second chance, to defeat Doflamingo through combat: and that also failed miserably.
Then it was Luffy’s turn. Luffy goes into the Doflamingo fight with plans to simply punch Doflamingo in the face repeatedly until that works, and succeeds immediately. Literally the shittiest plan in the world, but Luffy wins anyway.
Why did Law fail repeatedly when Luffy succeeded? Simple, because Luffy is the chosen Pirate Christ while Law isn’t. Law has a lot of shit going for him too, a 5 billion Berry Devil Fruit, the D. Initial, high intelligence and fighting skill, he may even have CoC because fuck it why not at this point, etc..but he simply fails because he is not Luffy.
The message Oda is sending?
“Don’t bother bringing your intellect to solve life’s greatest challenges, only genetic prophecy and endless amounts of destiny will help you overcome your struggles.”
The writing around Eustass Kid is even more heinous, because Kid and Luffy are, even in Wano, shown to be rivals with very similar willpower and ambition. However, Kid has spent the past 2 years getting smacked around and having his reputation destroyed, because once again, he is not Luffy.
Kid doesn’t have Rayleigh swimming across continents to teach him Haki.
Kid wasn’t gifted genetic god-hood by Garp and Dragon.
Kid wasn’t fortunate enough to be personally fed a WG-blacklisted Devil Fruit by a Yonko.
Kid, despite being paralleled with Luffy multiple times now for having that same strength of will, and even CoC, fails constantly while Luffy succeeds constantly. Kid and Luffy even looked like they were working exactly as hard as one another when they were moving rocks, but Kid is still a failure while Luffy defeats a Shichibukai every time he blinks. The message Oda is sending?
“Even if you cultivate a will as strong as Luffy’s own and work just as hard as Luffy, you will fail miserably because you still aren’t born the chosen one.”
Some might argue that Kid is a failure because he doesn’t train his Haki like Luffy does, to which I respond: yeah well, Rayleigh never swam across continents to spend two years stressing the importance of Haki to Kid. Shanks never sailed to Shabondy and told Rayleigh tales of Kid, birthing the desire to uproot his entire life to teach Kid Haki.
This messaging is not only ridiculously harmful to young people, it’s also just straight up not accurate to reality. Some of the greatest men and women in history have had extremely humble beginnings, with everything stacked against them and nothing in their favor, but have risen to greatness anyway. Napoleon was born a commoner, but at the height of his power, he dominated like, the entire western world, for example. In OP however, nobody ever succeeds at their ambitions accept for Luffy. Which brings us to part 3:
III. The OP Story is a Miserable Story of Hopeless Failure (Unless You Are Christ)
I only focused on Kid and Law here, but really the entire story of OP is a miserable little story about good people repeatedly failing in the face of evil only to be saved by the Pirate Christ. Go back and reread the story, only this time pay attention to the amount of minor characters who fail at their goals, only to be saved by Luffy in the end. I guarantee you in every arc, you will find a story where, if Luffy and company were not present, the good guys get hopelessly and mercilessly crushed by the forces of evil. For a few examples:
Nami and Arlong: were it not for Luffy, Arlong would’ve mentally broken Nami and kept her as his permanent slave.
Alabasta: the righteous Nefeltari family would’ve been brutally destroyed by Crocodile and their Kingdom would’ve been usurped.
Sky Island: the helpless denizens would’ve been massacred by Enel.
Fishman Island: Otohime’s righteous ideals would’ve been completely destroyed by Hody, her family massacred, and War would’ve been brought to the surface.
Punk Hazard: Caesar tortures children with no end in sight and sells WMDs to everyone else.
I could go on but these are just a few examples of how miserable this world would actually be to live in, if it weren’t for the Pirate Christ single-handedly solving all of the world’s problems by punching them in the face and screaming about how he’ll inevitably become the Pirate King, because who the fuck else even stands a chance at this point lol.
And speaking of no one else even standing a chance from the Pirate Jesus’ onslaught:
IV: A Total Lack of Conflict
There is no longer any doubt that Luffy will win every single encounter that he comes across. No matter what temporary failure it may seem has Luffy down for the count, he will never again experience true failure. There will never be an obstacle that he can’t overcome by sheer stubborn-ness, no enemy that he can’t defeat by punching them in the face over and over again, no inhabitant of the OP world who won’t build a bedroom shrine to him after knowing him for less than 24 hours..that’s it. The story of OP is just going through the motions at this point at the whims of Shonen Jump executives in the name of revenue, because the Pirate Christ will never fail at anything ever again.
Gone are the days of Aokiji at Long Ring Long Land, Kuma at Shabondy, Magellan at Impel Down, Marineford, etc..Oda has designed such a world that every possible problem from here on out will be solved by the mindless Fist of Christ.
Luffy seems defeated by Kaido? 0% of this fandom believes Luffy is not going to defeat Kaido in the end, and as such all of Wano just seems like a gigantic waste of time since the outcome is 100% certain.
Kaido is another genetic monstrosity gifted with a mythical DF and has ambitions of Pirate King, but he’s ultimately going to fail in the end anyway. Why? Because he’s not Luffy. He’s a comically evil idiot destined to get his shit kicked in by Christ.
Even Luffy’s ultimate greatest rival in Teach, a guy who sailed for decades under Whitebeard himself, literally broke the OP world by eating two DFs and very likely eating a 3rd in the near future, amassing a crew of the most heinous criminals in history, who is some-Fucking-how still slept on by the WG for some stupid reason, is going to lose to Christ in the end.
Oda literally had to create an antagonist who
hardcore breaks the laws of the OP world just to give us an antagonist that we
STILL have to suspend our disbelief to pretend like there’s a chance that Christ won’t kick his teeth in in the end anyway.
THIS IS A HUGE PROBLEM. When you’re creating a fictional world, a story with its own rules and established laws..if you have to create an antagonist who hardcore breaks those established rules, and everyone knows your protagonist won’t lose to this guy anyway…where the fuck is the tension exactly???
Here is a story where people can only run at 100 miles per hour. Oh but by the way, here’s a dude who can run at 300 miles an hour. But don’t worry, the protagonist will win anyway.
At this point, there is no point in reading a story where the possibility of failure is just completely thrown out of the window. The tension in fiction comes from the idea that the characters you’re rooting for
can actually fail. But with Pirate Christ…failure is no longer an option. He’s going to win in the end, there is no doubt. Destiny has deemed it so. And because there is no doubt…there is no real tension. Without tension, there is no conflict, and without conflict, there’s no story. Just a lifeless series of drawings and words presented in a sequential order. Which brings me to my conclusion:
V: There Is No Longer A Reason To Read One Piece
I know I’ve said this a few times in the past, but there doesn’t seem to be a point in reading this manga anymore. If I didn’t feel so invested in this series from the pre-timeskip days, I would’ve dropped it several times by now. I feel like I’m looking at what used to be a prized race horse, now old, sick, and decrepit, and I just can’t bring myself to put a gun to its head because of all the old memories and such.
This is just my opinion, but it’s clear to me now that OP is no longer a story that has anything to offer me, at least not as far as the Pirate Christ is concerned. And I’ve felt this way for a while now, but OP only seems to be worth following to witness the sheer spectacle of missteps and terrible writing choices, many of which are related to its abysmally un-relatable protagonist.
Am I alone in my thinking here? Feel free to roast me mercilessly if you disagree, I don’t care to act like my opinion is fact or anything lol. But what do you guys think? Is Luffy still a good protagonist? Is there still conflict and tension in One Piece?
@Owl Ki @Den_Den_Mushi @dizzy2341 @Beerbottle @Jiihad @ShishioIsBack @HA001 @TheAncientCenturion @Bogard @Van @Admiral Mou Bu @TheKnightOfTheSea @Seth @Zenos7 @Shuyaku
@comrade @MarineHQ62 @Sentinel @playa4321 @Topi Jerami @Prince Kronos @Sky @Dragomir etc etc etc
