HI !
Around my years in the One Piece community. I've noticed one big bad habit in people trying to explain/understand/theorize the story: The fact of using innappropriate storytelling concepts at the wrong time. I can let that pass 99% of the time because it doesn't hurt anyone.. but recently with the appearance of gear 5, I've notice people use words like "foreshadowing" and "retcon" in a complete wrong way. This has for effect to create a circle of hate around the Gear 5 transformation and plot twist when the opposite should happen.
So, because of my background in storytelling (thing that you can check in my presentation in my signature) I've decided to create a little course on the notion of planting in storytelling. For that I will use one of my article of my blog and developp the subject around the specific plot point that his the creation of Gear 5. This should make you understand why Gear 5 is one of the most creative and ambitious plot twist in storytelling history (not just in One Piece).
An infinite ways
There is a saying in the world of Storytelling: There is an infinite way to tell a story. If that's true for the way we create stories, that's ironically also true for the way we analyse them.
Take this word for example: "foreshadowing". Well, type it on google and I can bet you will find there at least three different definitions, with elements in contradiction with one another. In finite, that is not a problem as all those definition are analyzing a similar range of tools, but when we need precision like I do here, this is not enough.
What I will do here, is clean a little bit the field, redefine some concepts, give a little bit of precision for others, and try to give you a simple guide to understand how "plantings" work in a story.
What is a "planting"anyway?
Planting, in narration, is the action of "planting" a seed, a specific element, in a story, with the purpose of developping it into a whole new element later.
"Plantings" rest on the principle that each actions have an effect.
In storytelling (which include all form of story crafting) a planting can take multiple forms.
Missunderstood concepts
One of the forms that can take a "planting" is the foreshadowing. You may have heard about this before, as it is one of the favourite words of One Piece theorists. Sadly, this concept is most often missunderstood and I won't lie, I participated to this as everyone else. But this has to stop, at least for us to get through this course with clarity. So, what are and what are not "foreshadowings"?
The foreshadowing
The Forshadowing (also called setup and payoff) is a storytelling technique that consist in suggesting the future of the story (the pay Off) with the help of a setup, a element in the story. It can be many things, from dialogues or objects to settings.
For example, this panel from chapter 823 is a little foreshadowing adressing the future of the crew. We know Luffy never cooks so we are left surprised and exited for that specific action.
Of course Luffy doesn't know how to cook so this little setup will payoff in a tromendous amount of peripeteia: The starvation of the crew / The hunt for a fish / Luffy being poisoinned etc.
Careful though! A foreshadowing is not a Red Herring nor it is chekov's gun.
A Red Herring is also a planting but the opposite of a foreshadowing. It's a technique that consist in introducing an element in a story as a setup only to divert the attention of the audience, without a pay off. Those are often used in detective stories when we need multiple suspects.
Chekov's gun, on the other hand, is a rule that states that every element in a story must be necessary and irrelevant elements should be removed. It is derived from an idea of Anton Chekhov (A russian playwright), that if a gun is placed in a scene, it must at some point be used.
In short, when a foreshadowing is a technique, Chekov's gun is a rule. It is also noteworthy that all foreshadowing must obey this rule. If not, they can become Red Herrings.
Hints/Clues... Those are not foreshadowings!
A foreshadowing is a planting. It must serve the story. A foreshadowing must setup a storytelling fact and ease the impact of the payoff. Hints does not do that. They are just here as a subtle wink from the author, they are not here to serve the story. That is why clues and hints are NOT foreshadowings!
Example of hints:
- The Kozuki Crest on the cover page of chapter 310
- Luffy with firery hairs on the cover page of chapter 1028
Let's go deeper
Before analysing the last type of planting I will dig a little bit deeper into the world of foreshadowings. Much like a spectrum, foreshadowing are separated into
two groups :
- Direct foreshadowing
&
- Indirect foreshadowing
In each of those "range" we can find different type of foreshadowing:
Direct foreshadowing:
This range regroup the most obvious foreshadowings, those are the foreshadowings that let very few place for imagination. They are also the one that are the most visible in the story. They can be:
Indirect foreshadowing:
This range regroup the less obvious foreshadowings. Those are the little clues along the way, the little mysteries that give the writer to his audience to create his world. They are also less visible in the story. They can be:
You may have guessed it.... The more a foreshadowing blends into the story, the better it's impact on the revelation. But it doesn't mean that we can't play with direct foreshadowing either.. Observe the story of One Piece, and you will find out that Eiichiro Oda is playing with a great range of foreshadowing to make his story organic.
Shadowings
At last, we are talking about the final "planting": the shadowing, the most interessing one. Don't bother searching this word on internet, I made it up. You see, in my researchs, I found out that there was something missing in the definition of "planting", something that was not even touched by great storytelling guru, and that it was different from the regular foreshadowing.. Usually theory essay or storyteller book are quite scares around the concept of foreshadowing so I had to create this term to be even more precise.
Here is a schematic of the status of Shadowings
You can see here that Shadowings are in the center of the "planting circle". They are the most subtle planting there is. The reason is simple: they are part of the foundamental construction of the narration, but unlike their counterpart (the foreshadowings), the shadowings does not hint the future, they prepare it to make it believable.
In regular stories and most of the time, you need to go back into the story to notice a shadowing. They most often revolve aroung the action of a character and they are necessary to keep the story organic.
Here are a few shadowings from chapter 1
As you can see, shadowings are extremely powerful tools, when used well they make the difference between a good and a jaw drawping story. And of course, Oda is one of their master.
Volontary or not
One of the most important fact about planting that a LOT of fan are failing to understand is that some plantings have the great quality of being retroactives. Meaning that a planting can be written in the story unconsciously first (without the will of creating a planting) but be reappropriating back by the author YEARS later.
That's the magic of planting.. their beauty doesn't rely on their longevity, their beauty rely on their fonction in a story.
For example if X character says that they have stolen a treasure on a ship.. the author has the complete opportunity of turning this simple line into a foreshadowing later by creating more information on said ship (this is the example of Lucky Roux). That way, the greateness of the foreshadowing is that the story makes sence EVEN if the author didn't planned for it to be at the beginning.
That's why its irrelevant to talk about the fact of an author planned or not a planting, the only thing we should focus on is weither or not the connection works.
Plantings doesn't mean a story is necessaraly good, but good planting help in creating a good story.
-------------------------------------------
Now, let's apply this knowledge on the Gear 5 plot point
One of the most innacurate thing I see on internet concerning Gear 5 is that this is a retcon.
What are "retcons" ?
Retcons or "retroactive continuity" are "literary devices in which facts in the world of a fictional work which have been established through the narrative itself are adjusted, ignored, supplemented, or contradicted by a subsequently published work which recontextualizes or breaks continuity with the former" - source, wikipedia.
The core principle of the retcon is that there is a contradiction between old and new content.
But this is not the case with Gear 5, each parameters of the plot point can be explained through the story. Gear 5 doesn't contradict the story in any ways shape or form.. in fact, it does the complete opposite.
The brilliance of Gear 5
I have reasons to believe that Gear 5 is not only NOT a retcon and so not a facility, but is one of the most impressive and best plot twist in storytelling history. I'll explain that in details in the following. The brilliance of this plot twist can be seen through different storytelling categories:
- The thematic values
- The characterization of the protagonist
- The worldbuilding
- The status of the story
- The symbolism
- The breakthrough from the support
& finally...
- The plantings
The best twist are the ones that use at least two or three of those categories. For example, the twist "Raizo is Safe" is playing with "characterization" as it is used to help characterize the Mink's tribe, it also uses the "status of the story" as it return the story of Zou on its head and finally plantings as it is prepared with a lot of plantings during the arc.
The characterization of the protagonist
Gear 5 pushes the characterization of Luffy to its ultimate limit. It allows Oda to transform Luffy into the embodiement of his own dream : Freedom. This also put on Luffy an aura of legend that he didn't have until now. Gear 5 marks the frontiere that Luffy had to cross to become a real Yonko, both in term of power and in term of character.
The thematic values & symbolism
Through Gear 5, Oda explore the theme of Freedom, but more so, the thematic of barrieres being broken. Through Gear 5, the entire story surpasses a barrier that was until now inaccessible. From simple threat, Luffy becomes a Yonko (we will even see gear 5 being portray as the incarnation of Luffy on the wanted poster). Through gear 5, this is also the limit of comedy that is broken. From simple goofyness in some of the fights, a goofyness that had no real impact on the status of the fight, we are now entering the Toon zone were the toon abilities of Luffy can cause real damages to his ennemies.
As I said, this is also the thematic of freedom that is pushed toward its limits. There is no better freedom that becoming a real toon like character and using that to defeat the ennemies. But through this new power we can see that Luffy is not the only one capable of such freedom ! Through him, his environment is ALSO influenced by this amazing ability. As such, the freedom that Luffy is dreaming about is starting to influence the entire world around him, characters are now able to become streatchy and maleable, they are able to have their eyes poped out of orbits. In short, through Gear 5 the world around Luffy is becoming more free. Free from threats as much as free from reality.
Through Gear 5, Luffy literally become the god of Joy. Gear 5 is not only bringing freedom to the world of One Piece, but it also brings laughter to the characters AND the readers. The symbolism and thematic values of this transformation are one of the most dense we can see in manga history.
The worldbuilding
Gear 5 will not only hit the story with symbolism, but it also pushes the limits of the world building of One Piece. By becoming a virtual reincarnation of Joyboy, Luffy also put himself at the place of the bringer of the Dawn of the world. By this transformation, we learn a lot more about fruits in general but also about the world government. By creating the FIRST new deity of the One Piece world (Nika) Oda adds a lot more detail to his worldbuilding.
The breakthrough of the support
This is one of the thing that makes this transformation so unique in term of storytelling. Through Gear 5, Oda is taking the risk of his life. Indeed, through this transformation, Oda confirms the collide of two world: the manga realm and the Toon animated universe. Its obvious that Oda loves the Toon art, we can see that early on with his early design. But with the Gear 5, Oda put on paper a direct inspiration. Luffy literally becomes a toon, a character with only imagination as a limit (and Haki of course). This was very risky and that is something that most story don't even try to do.
And this is one of the success of gear 5. The toon force feels logical, both with Luffy and the narration of the story. Of course some people will rage a little, finding this power a little too overthe top, but those people don't understand that it was the logical course of action put into motion since chapter 1.
The status of the story
This is one of the most impacting category in which Gear 5 shines. Gear 5 as a plot twist requestion the ENTIRE status of the story. Not just one arc, not just a saga, but it put into question our ENTIRE knowledge of the story and best of all.. of the characterization of the main protagonist.
Let's be honest.. this is something that even the best story and the best fiction writers have hard time doing..
Usually, they need a new element that is outside of theprotagonist or a retcon.. but here, the entire story is turn on its head and is STILL logical (meaning without contradiction, as I said, its not a retcon). Our entire knowledge of the fruit of Luffy is questionned and we can therefore see little detail with a new perspective.
-------------------
AND ALL OF THAT WAS POSSIBLE BECAUSE OF PLANTINGS.
-------------------
The genius of planting regarding the Gear 5 transformation
We are attacking the last part of this little thread. We will focus on the planting that were used to make this transformation work. You will see that everything was under our nose the entire time.
First we will talk about Shadowings as the first foreshadowing of this transformation is only appearing at fishmen island with the mention of Joy Boy.
The first shadowing and the most simple one was this one:
Pretty obvious... to become Rubber.. Luffy first need to ate the fruit. This was the first step toward Gear 5. It may sound strange, but a shadowing is like a brick, to build a strong house you need each brick put at the right place at the right time.. This shadowing will lead toward this revelation:
To have an impactfull revelation.. Luffy eating the fruit needed to be sneaky. That's what Oda did.. and this revelation lead to this Shadowing:
Now, at this point we could say "Oda didn't planned that".. But remember, planting are retroactives meaning that if oda manage to create a good connection, the revelation will have the same impact.
This little panel will permit Oda to developp WAY LATER this storyline:
By using that little panel as a shadowing, Oda managed to create an entire storyline about Who's who being imprisonned because of Shanks and a foreshadowing : the existence of a possible positive deity, Nika.
This foreshadowing will lead directly to those panel and the revelation of the nature of the fruit of Luffy:
Now this is where it gets interesting
Most people will stop at those little shadowing and foreshadowing to analyse the story.. But the reality is that there is a lot more content that just that.
You will see a lot of people here say that Oda retcon the story and the ability of Luffy.. But the reality is the complete opposite. In fact Oda added information on things that were already there. He IMPROVED his work:
The transformation that is Gear 5 was prepared with a LOT of care and with a lot more content that just those little foreshadowing and shadowings.
Oda put the future of Luffy's transformation directly under our noses. This is what you must pay attention to to understand that Gear 5 was in fact very well planned or at least very well written in the story.
The shadowings along the way
Lets take a look at those picture. What do you see ?
Well the answer is simple: A TOON.
Oda may have had the idea of gear 5 late (I don't think so) he still put everything in his story to make the transition between the reality and the toon world.. normal.
Those, in restrospective are now considered shadowings.. they perfectly prepared the future of Luffy.
Now.. Let's look at the transformations:
Gear 2.. Become of this name we can assume that at that time, Oda had already the plan to create 5 gear. You can see that there is already the theme of the smoke appearing. The smoke will become a huge part of "legendary" figure later in One Piece.
Gear 3. Oda makes Luffy developp a huge strenght and a massive fist by blowing on his thumb. This is not anodine. This is a direct reference to that bit:
Here we can see the development of the influence of the TOons on Oda's work.. we can also assume that already at this time, Oda planned for Luffy to become a giant.
Gear 4. This time Oda uses his own work as a direct reference as this transformation directly invoked the Zombie Luffy. And just like Gear 3 , Luffy blow into himself to become someone new, this time on his arm.
You can see here that the smoke of Gear two transform into a scarf influenced by Asian deity.
Its even more pronounced in gear 4 Snake man
You can see here that Luffy is already representing a deity in some way.
Through his transformations, Oda shadowed the incoming gear 5.
Remember, weither or not it was intended doesn't matter. The reality is that through those transformation, the gear 5 seems logical.
The reality of the Nika fruit
The fruit of Luffy, the Nika model, uses imagination to influence LUffy and its environment and my take on that is that Oda had this planned from the beginning.
To be aware of that you must look at one specific set of panels:
Here you can see that the fist of Luffy literally becomes Fire. This is a direct repetition of the power of Ace. This attack act as an hommage to the brother of Luffy. BUT IT SHOULD NOT EXIST. Indeed.. nothing in the story tells us that Luffy can create fire.. But not only that.. Luffy create fire IN WATER the first time we see the attack.
In retrospective, this should be seen as a direct shadowing of Luffy's real ability. Through mental and imagination, Luffy was able to create real fire, this will be repeated with EL Thor later with lighting.
This little clue from Oda is foundamental. And we can go farther. Indeed, we could say that the fruit of Luffy was ALREADY influencing the environment along the way.
With two little power up:
And:
Worth noting that GEAR 2/3 + Ashura + Diable Jambe arrive at the SAME TIME. In fact I will get farther and say that the presence of a Klabautermann as Merry COULD be an effect of Luffy's fruit.
All of this is of course just a theory. But keep that in mind.
Oda Made history
So.. as you can see.. gear 5 is a lot more than just a fruit change. This is an entire perspective that is put into question, this is a revelation 20 years probably in the making this is something that shook up the entire fanbase and our understanding of the story.
This is more than just a plot twist, this is history.
I wouldn't be surprised if that specific plot twist was studied in 100 or 200 years from now. This is better than most of what you will see in Cinema, art and litterature.
And all of this has one purpose:
To make us laugh.
Around my years in the One Piece community. I've noticed one big bad habit in people trying to explain/understand/theorize the story: The fact of using innappropriate storytelling concepts at the wrong time. I can let that pass 99% of the time because it doesn't hurt anyone.. but recently with the appearance of gear 5, I've notice people use words like "foreshadowing" and "retcon" in a complete wrong way. This has for effect to create a circle of hate around the Gear 5 transformation and plot twist when the opposite should happen.
So, because of my background in storytelling (thing that you can check in my presentation in my signature) I've decided to create a little course on the notion of planting in storytelling. For that I will use one of my article of my blog and developp the subject around the specific plot point that his the creation of Gear 5. This should make you understand why Gear 5 is one of the most creative and ambitious plot twist in storytelling history (not just in One Piece).
An infinite ways
There is a saying in the world of Storytelling: There is an infinite way to tell a story. If that's true for the way we create stories, that's ironically also true for the way we analyse them.
Take this word for example: "foreshadowing". Well, type it on google and I can bet you will find there at least three different definitions, with elements in contradiction with one another. In finite, that is not a problem as all those definition are analyzing a similar range of tools, but when we need precision like I do here, this is not enough.
What I will do here, is clean a little bit the field, redefine some concepts, give a little bit of precision for others, and try to give you a simple guide to understand how "plantings" work in a story.
What is a "planting"anyway?
Planting, in narration, is the action of "planting" a seed, a specific element, in a story, with the purpose of developping it into a whole new element later.
"Plantings" rest on the principle that each actions have an effect.
In storytelling (which include all form of story crafting) a planting can take multiple forms.
Missunderstood concepts
One of the forms that can take a "planting" is the foreshadowing. You may have heard about this before, as it is one of the favourite words of One Piece theorists. Sadly, this concept is most often missunderstood and I won't lie, I participated to this as everyone else. But this has to stop, at least for us to get through this course with clarity. So, what are and what are not "foreshadowings"?
The foreshadowing
The Forshadowing (also called setup and payoff) is a storytelling technique that consist in suggesting the future of the story (the pay Off) with the help of a setup, a element in the story. It can be many things, from dialogues or objects to settings.
For example, this panel from chapter 823 is a little foreshadowing adressing the future of the crew. We know Luffy never cooks so we are left surprised and exited for that specific action.
Of course Luffy doesn't know how to cook so this little setup will payoff in a tromendous amount of peripeteia: The starvation of the crew / The hunt for a fish / Luffy being poisoinned etc.
Careful though! A foreshadowing is not a Red Herring nor it is chekov's gun.
A Red Herring is also a planting but the opposite of a foreshadowing. It's a technique that consist in introducing an element in a story as a setup only to divert the attention of the audience, without a pay off. Those are often used in detective stories when we need multiple suspects.
Chekov's gun, on the other hand, is a rule that states that every element in a story must be necessary and irrelevant elements should be removed. It is derived from an idea of Anton Chekhov (A russian playwright), that if a gun is placed in a scene, it must at some point be used.
In short, when a foreshadowing is a technique, Chekov's gun is a rule. It is also noteworthy that all foreshadowing must obey this rule. If not, they can become Red Herrings.
Hints/Clues... Those are not foreshadowings!
A foreshadowing is a planting. It must serve the story. A foreshadowing must setup a storytelling fact and ease the impact of the payoff. Hints does not do that. They are just here as a subtle wink from the author, they are not here to serve the story. That is why clues and hints are NOT foreshadowings!
Example of hints:
- The Kozuki Crest on the cover page of chapter 310
- Luffy with firery hairs on the cover page of chapter 1028
Let's go deeper
Before analysing the last type of planting I will dig a little bit deeper into the world of foreshadowings. Much like a spectrum, foreshadowing are separated into
two groups :
- Direct foreshadowing
&
- Indirect foreshadowing
In each of those "range" we can find different type of foreshadowing:
Direct foreshadowing:
This range regroup the most obvious foreshadowings, those are the foreshadowings that let very few place for imagination. They are also the one that are the most visible in the story. They can be:
- Dialogue statement: Made by the characters themselves. The panel from chapter 823 ("I'll cook") that we analysed earlier was a direct foreshadowing.
- Prophecies: Made by characters or the narrator, prophecies are also direct foreshadowings. The prophecy from Sharley stating that Luffy will destroy fishmen Island is a direct foreshadowing.
- Statement from the narrator: When the narrator explain what will happen in the future. The prediction of the narrator in chapter 800 regarding the strawhat grand fleet is a great example of direct foreshadowing.
Indirect foreshadowing:
This range regroup the less obvious foreshadowings. Those are the little clues along the way, the little mysteries that give the writer to his audience to create his world. They are also less visible in the story. They can be:
- The lyer of truth: I made this categorie specifically for One Piece and Usopp. Usopp lies are close to prophecie, but they can be so subtle we don't notice them. They are on the fine line between direct and indirect foreshadowings. The only reason the lyer of truth is not a "hint" is because the story allows us to understand that each Usopp's prophecies are bound to become true. They can therefore be considered as setups.
- Subtle dialogue remarks: Those indirect foreshadowings are most often the result of an action or a situation. For example in chapter 805, Wanda tells Luffy that he should be grateful that it was not a moonlit night. This foreshadow the Sulong transformation of the mink 83 chapters later.
- Shift of setting: When they are done well those indirect foreshadowing blends perfectly in the story. Most of the time, they are changes in the environment, like a storm approaching and foreshadowing a strong climax. A good shift of setting has an impact on the story. You can find them during the battle of Onigashima, with the could and the moon.
- "Reminders": Those indirect foreshadowing are a repetition of a previous foreshadowing in another way. For example, there are three reminders for the Sulong transformation. The first foreshadowing appear when Wanda says that Luffy is lucky that it is not the night on zou. The second happens when Nekomamushi says that they have a trump card. And the third happen when Carrot ask Chopper about the full moon during the escape of whole cake island..
The role of "reminders" is to "remind" you of an element setup in the story:
You may have guessed it.... The more a foreshadowing blends into the story, the better it's impact on the revelation. But it doesn't mean that we can't play with direct foreshadowing either.. Observe the story of One Piece, and you will find out that Eiichiro Oda is playing with a great range of foreshadowing to make his story organic.
Shadowings
At last, we are talking about the final "planting": the shadowing, the most interessing one. Don't bother searching this word on internet, I made it up. You see, in my researchs, I found out that there was something missing in the definition of "planting", something that was not even touched by great storytelling guru, and that it was different from the regular foreshadowing.. Usually theory essay or storyteller book are quite scares around the concept of foreshadowing so I had to create this term to be even more precise.
Here is a schematic of the status of Shadowings
You can see here that Shadowings are in the center of the "planting circle". They are the most subtle planting there is. The reason is simple: they are part of the foundamental construction of the narration, but unlike their counterpart (the foreshadowings), the shadowings does not hint the future, they prepare it to make it believable.
In regular stories and most of the time, you need to go back into the story to notice a shadowing. They most often revolve aroung the action of a character and they are necessary to keep the story organic.
Here are a few shadowings from chapter 1
- Luffy stabbing himself. Oda needed for Luffy to be introduced has a reckless boy in order to make his future feats (like punching a cape full of pikes during his fight against don Krief) feel natural for him. Because of this action Oda created a character who was not afraid of getting hurt at all. And Luffy scar on his right eye is here to remind us of that.
- Luffy eating meat in the Party's Bar. Oda needed to make Luffy eat the Gomu Gomu fruit naturally. So to do that, Oda made him eating his lunch first. And because of this shadowing, Luffy eating the fruit felt natural.
- Shanks laughing of his missfortune is a shadowing that will only take effects far into the future of the story. Oda needed to make Luffy see that fighting for bad reasons is meaningless. We understand the importance of this shadowing only on Jaya.
- Lucky Roux explaining that the missing fruit is the fruit they took from an enemy ship is a shadowing that will only be relevant decades later in Wano..
As you can see, shadowings are extremely powerful tools, when used well they make the difference between a good and a jaw drawping story. And of course, Oda is one of their master.
Volontary or not
One of the most important fact about planting that a LOT of fan are failing to understand is that some plantings have the great quality of being retroactives. Meaning that a planting can be written in the story unconsciously first (without the will of creating a planting) but be reappropriating back by the author YEARS later.
That's the magic of planting.. their beauty doesn't rely on their longevity, their beauty rely on their fonction in a story.
For example if X character says that they have stolen a treasure on a ship.. the author has the complete opportunity of turning this simple line into a foreshadowing later by creating more information on said ship (this is the example of Lucky Roux). That way, the greateness of the foreshadowing is that the story makes sence EVEN if the author didn't planned for it to be at the beginning.
That's why its irrelevant to talk about the fact of an author planned or not a planting, the only thing we should focus on is weither or not the connection works.
Plantings doesn't mean a story is necessaraly good, but good planting help in creating a good story.
-------------------------------------------
Now, let's apply this knowledge on the Gear 5 plot point
One of the most innacurate thing I see on internet concerning Gear 5 is that this is a retcon.
What are "retcons" ?
Retcons or "retroactive continuity" are "literary devices in which facts in the world of a fictional work which have been established through the narrative itself are adjusted, ignored, supplemented, or contradicted by a subsequently published work which recontextualizes or breaks continuity with the former" - source, wikipedia.
The core principle of the retcon is that there is a contradiction between old and new content.
But this is not the case with Gear 5, each parameters of the plot point can be explained through the story. Gear 5 doesn't contradict the story in any ways shape or form.. in fact, it does the complete opposite.
The brilliance of Gear 5
I have reasons to believe that Gear 5 is not only NOT a retcon and so not a facility, but is one of the most impressive and best plot twist in storytelling history. I'll explain that in details in the following. The brilliance of this plot twist can be seen through different storytelling categories:
- The thematic values
- The characterization of the protagonist
- The worldbuilding
- The status of the story
- The symbolism
- The breakthrough from the support
& finally...
- The plantings
The best twist are the ones that use at least two or three of those categories. For example, the twist "Raizo is Safe" is playing with "characterization" as it is used to help characterize the Mink's tribe, it also uses the "status of the story" as it return the story of Zou on its head and finally plantings as it is prepared with a lot of plantings during the arc.
The characterization of the protagonist
Gear 5 pushes the characterization of Luffy to its ultimate limit. It allows Oda to transform Luffy into the embodiement of his own dream : Freedom. This also put on Luffy an aura of legend that he didn't have until now. Gear 5 marks the frontiere that Luffy had to cross to become a real Yonko, both in term of power and in term of character.
The thematic values & symbolism
Through Gear 5, Oda explore the theme of Freedom, but more so, the thematic of barrieres being broken. Through Gear 5, the entire story surpasses a barrier that was until now inaccessible. From simple threat, Luffy becomes a Yonko (we will even see gear 5 being portray as the incarnation of Luffy on the wanted poster). Through gear 5, this is also the limit of comedy that is broken. From simple goofyness in some of the fights, a goofyness that had no real impact on the status of the fight, we are now entering the Toon zone were the toon abilities of Luffy can cause real damages to his ennemies.
As I said, this is also the thematic of freedom that is pushed toward its limits. There is no better freedom that becoming a real toon like character and using that to defeat the ennemies. But through this new power we can see that Luffy is not the only one capable of such freedom ! Through him, his environment is ALSO influenced by this amazing ability. As such, the freedom that Luffy is dreaming about is starting to influence the entire world around him, characters are now able to become streatchy and maleable, they are able to have their eyes poped out of orbits. In short, through Gear 5 the world around Luffy is becoming more free. Free from threats as much as free from reality.
Through Gear 5, Luffy literally become the god of Joy. Gear 5 is not only bringing freedom to the world of One Piece, but it also brings laughter to the characters AND the readers. The symbolism and thematic values of this transformation are one of the most dense we can see in manga history.
The worldbuilding
Gear 5 will not only hit the story with symbolism, but it also pushes the limits of the world building of One Piece. By becoming a virtual reincarnation of Joyboy, Luffy also put himself at the place of the bringer of the Dawn of the world. By this transformation, we learn a lot more about fruits in general but also about the world government. By creating the FIRST new deity of the One Piece world (Nika) Oda adds a lot more detail to his worldbuilding.
The breakthrough of the support
This is one of the thing that makes this transformation so unique in term of storytelling. Through Gear 5, Oda is taking the risk of his life. Indeed, through this transformation, Oda confirms the collide of two world: the manga realm and the Toon animated universe. Its obvious that Oda loves the Toon art, we can see that early on with his early design. But with the Gear 5, Oda put on paper a direct inspiration. Luffy literally becomes a toon, a character with only imagination as a limit (and Haki of course). This was very risky and that is something that most story don't even try to do.
And this is one of the success of gear 5. The toon force feels logical, both with Luffy and the narration of the story. Of course some people will rage a little, finding this power a little too overthe top, but those people don't understand that it was the logical course of action put into motion since chapter 1.
The status of the story
This is one of the most impacting category in which Gear 5 shines. Gear 5 as a plot twist requestion the ENTIRE status of the story. Not just one arc, not just a saga, but it put into question our ENTIRE knowledge of the story and best of all.. of the characterization of the main protagonist.
Let's be honest.. this is something that even the best story and the best fiction writers have hard time doing..
Usually, they need a new element that is outside of theprotagonist or a retcon.. but here, the entire story is turn on its head and is STILL logical (meaning without contradiction, as I said, its not a retcon). Our entire knowledge of the fruit of Luffy is questionned and we can therefore see little detail with a new perspective.
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AND ALL OF THAT WAS POSSIBLE BECAUSE OF PLANTINGS.
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The genius of planting regarding the Gear 5 transformation
We are attacking the last part of this little thread. We will focus on the planting that were used to make this transformation work. You will see that everything was under our nose the entire time.
First we will talk about Shadowings as the first foreshadowing of this transformation is only appearing at fishmen island with the mention of Joy Boy.
The first shadowing and the most simple one was this one:
Pretty obvious... to become Rubber.. Luffy first need to ate the fruit. This was the first step toward Gear 5. It may sound strange, but a shadowing is like a brick, to build a strong house you need each brick put at the right place at the right time.. This shadowing will lead toward this revelation:
To have an impactfull revelation.. Luffy eating the fruit needed to be sneaky. That's what Oda did.. and this revelation lead to this Shadowing:
Now, at this point we could say "Oda didn't planned that".. But remember, planting are retroactives meaning that if oda manage to create a good connection, the revelation will have the same impact.
This little panel will permit Oda to developp WAY LATER this storyline:
By using that little panel as a shadowing, Oda managed to create an entire storyline about Who's who being imprisonned because of Shanks and a foreshadowing : the existence of a possible positive deity, Nika.
This foreshadowing will lead directly to those panel and the revelation of the nature of the fruit of Luffy:
Now this is where it gets interesting
Most people will stop at those little shadowing and foreshadowing to analyse the story.. But the reality is that there is a lot more content that just that.
You will see a lot of people here say that Oda retcon the story and the ability of Luffy.. But the reality is the complete opposite. In fact Oda added information on things that were already there. He IMPROVED his work:
The transformation that is Gear 5 was prepared with a LOT of care and with a lot more content that just those little foreshadowing and shadowings.
Oda put the future of Luffy's transformation directly under our noses. This is what you must pay attention to to understand that Gear 5 was in fact very well planned or at least very well written in the story.
The shadowings along the way
Lets take a look at those picture. What do you see ?
Well the answer is simple: A TOON.
Oda may have had the idea of gear 5 late (I don't think so) he still put everything in his story to make the transition between the reality and the toon world.. normal.
Those, in restrospective are now considered shadowings.. they perfectly prepared the future of Luffy.
Now.. Let's look at the transformations:
Gear 2.. Become of this name we can assume that at that time, Oda had already the plan to create 5 gear. You can see that there is already the theme of the smoke appearing. The smoke will become a huge part of "legendary" figure later in One Piece.
Gear 3. Oda makes Luffy developp a huge strenght and a massive fist by blowing on his thumb. This is not anodine. This is a direct reference to that bit:
Here we can see the development of the influence of the TOons on Oda's work.. we can also assume that already at this time, Oda planned for Luffy to become a giant.
Gear 4. This time Oda uses his own work as a direct reference as this transformation directly invoked the Zombie Luffy. And just like Gear 3 , Luffy blow into himself to become someone new, this time on his arm.
You can see here that the smoke of Gear two transform into a scarf influenced by Asian deity.
Its even more pronounced in gear 4 Snake man
You can see here that Luffy is already representing a deity in some way.
Through his transformations, Oda shadowed the incoming gear 5.
Remember, weither or not it was intended doesn't matter. The reality is that through those transformation, the gear 5 seems logical.
The reality of the Nika fruit
The fruit of Luffy, the Nika model, uses imagination to influence LUffy and its environment and my take on that is that Oda had this planned from the beginning.
To be aware of that you must look at one specific set of panels:
Here you can see that the fist of Luffy literally becomes Fire. This is a direct repetition of the power of Ace. This attack act as an hommage to the brother of Luffy. BUT IT SHOULD NOT EXIST. Indeed.. nothing in the story tells us that Luffy can create fire.. But not only that.. Luffy create fire IN WATER the first time we see the attack.
In retrospective, this should be seen as a direct shadowing of Luffy's real ability. Through mental and imagination, Luffy was able to create real fire, this will be repeated with EL Thor later with lighting.
This little clue from Oda is foundamental. And we can go farther. Indeed, we could say that the fruit of Luffy was ALREADY influencing the environment along the way.
With two little power up:
And:
Worth noting that GEAR 2/3 + Ashura + Diable Jambe arrive at the SAME TIME. In fact I will get farther and say that the presence of a Klabautermann as Merry COULD be an effect of Luffy's fruit.
All of this is of course just a theory. But keep that in mind.
Oda Made history
So.. as you can see.. gear 5 is a lot more than just a fruit change. This is an entire perspective that is put into question, this is a revelation 20 years probably in the making this is something that shook up the entire fanbase and our understanding of the story.
This is more than just a plot twist, this is history.
I wouldn't be surprised if that specific plot twist was studied in 100 or 200 years from now. This is better than most of what you will see in Cinema, art and litterature.
And all of this has one purpose:
To make us laugh.
