Hello everyone,
Shitting on Oda seems to be the cool thing to do these days, and in this regard I can certainly be considered one of the coolest kids on the block.
However, today I’d like to do something I haven’t done in years and that is actually praise Oda for what is, in my opinion, a good writing decision overall.
I had a lot of time to think about why Oda would have Lucci seemingly keep pace with Luffy’s growth rate (or at least seem much closer than I thought he would be). I was on record in the past as saying that I did not believe Lucci would come back as strong as he did:
So you can imagine my surprise after Lucci busting out awakening and holding his own against Gear 5.
At first I thought, why would Oda make Lucci so strong? Is it because Lucci was a main-arc villain and is well-known to fans? Well, maybe, but that wouldn’t explain why Oda took the specific time to show Lucci as having grown much stronger due to training (Haki) and awakening, while with other big characters like Crocodile, Buggy, Akainu, or Caesar, Oda never explicitly claims that these characters have gotten stronger since they were introduced at all.
Is it because Lucci is popular? Well again maybe, but there are more popular characters than Lucci who never showed explicit Powerups like this.
What gives? Why would Oda have Lucci (relatively) keep pace with Luffy like this? Luffy’s growth rate has been stated multiple times as being “abnormal” (fast), even outpacing characters like Law and Kid. Luffy essentially went from being like, low New World Veteran level-ish at Marineford to Yonko level in 2 years. Now Lucci essentially did the same, having gone perhaps a similar range, low/mid New World Veteran level to clashing equally with Nika (somewhere in the top YC/low top tier range).
Well, I can’t say exactly what in Oda’s mind lead him to beef Lucci up like this, but what I can say is this:
Showing us that there are other characters out there who can grow rapidly in strength goes a long way towards making Luffy seem less like a completely unrepeatable god protagonist with zero flaws or limitations. If Oda would’ve had Luffy fodderize Lucci, then nobody would have been surprised and Luffy’s reputation as a generic messiah would’ve continued on un-checked.
Now however, we see that Luffy is far from the only “abnormally fast growing genius” out there. Even characters like Lucci, who most fans including myself had assumed was already at or near his maximum power level, still had a lot of growing to do and perhaps still isn’t even finished refining his strength. And him growing this much isn’t unbelievable as Lucci was always a genius and always had the possibility of awakening and training his Haki.
By showing us other characters who can still train and grow much stronger just like Luffy, Luffy looks less and less like a Demi-god, and more just like any other fast growing genius out there, and this in my opinion is a really good thing. It makes One Piece feel more like a living breathing world when we know that no matter how special our MC is, he is not some destiny child blessed by an invisible diety, not some video game protagonist who levels up at astronomical rates while everyone else stays at or near their starting level.
Idk. This shit makes the series more engaging to me, when other characters train and improve just like the MC does as long as it’s within reason. Other series like Black Clover do this too much I think, in Black Clover every characters gains huge strength increases every arc, but OP doing stuff like this in moderation is a really good thing.
I hope Oda does more things like this in the future, any and every decision he can make to make Luffy more relatable is a good thing.
Thoughts?
@SakazOuki @Sentinel @Blackbeard @Playa4321 @Veku @MarineHQ @Seth @AkainuTheGrimReaper @Chrono @kurwa @TheKnightOfTheSea @God Buggy @King7 @ShishioIsBack @HA001 OF THE RAIN @Yelan’s Minion etc
Shitting on Oda seems to be the cool thing to do these days, and in this regard I can certainly be considered one of the coolest kids on the block.
However, today I’d like to do something I haven’t done in years and that is actually praise Oda for what is, in my opinion, a good writing decision overall.
I had a lot of time to think about why Oda would have Lucci seemingly keep pace with Luffy’s growth rate (or at least seem much closer than I thought he would be). I was on record in the past as saying that I did not believe Lucci would come back as strong as he did:
Lucci and Luffy were pretty much the exact same overall power level at Enies Lobby. If Reverie Lucci was already YC1, a level that Luffy at that point had debatably not even attained yet, then that would mean Lucci grew just as fast as Luffy did, or faster.
And Luffy’s growth rate is already completely abnormal from every source we have. I don’t see a reason to think Lucci grew that quickly, in fact I think it’s ludicrous to suggest he grew that fast. Even YC3 is a pretty big jump in power considering Lucci pre-TS was what? Oven level overall? Going from Oven to Cracker in 2 years just seems huge to me lol.
And Luffy’s growth rate is already completely abnormal from every source we have. I don’t see a reason to think Lucci grew that quickly, in fact I think it’s ludicrous to suggest he grew that fast. Even YC3 is a pretty big jump in power considering Lucci pre-TS was what? Oven level overall? Going from Oven to Cracker in 2 years just seems huge to me lol.
At first I thought, why would Oda make Lucci so strong? Is it because Lucci was a main-arc villain and is well-known to fans? Well, maybe, but that wouldn’t explain why Oda took the specific time to show Lucci as having grown much stronger due to training (Haki) and awakening, while with other big characters like Crocodile, Buggy, Akainu, or Caesar, Oda never explicitly claims that these characters have gotten stronger since they were introduced at all.
Is it because Lucci is popular? Well again maybe, but there are more popular characters than Lucci who never showed explicit Powerups like this.
What gives? Why would Oda have Lucci (relatively) keep pace with Luffy like this? Luffy’s growth rate has been stated multiple times as being “abnormal” (fast), even outpacing characters like Law and Kid. Luffy essentially went from being like, low New World Veteran level-ish at Marineford to Yonko level in 2 years. Now Lucci essentially did the same, having gone perhaps a similar range, low/mid New World Veteran level to clashing equally with Nika (somewhere in the top YC/low top tier range).
Well, I can’t say exactly what in Oda’s mind lead him to beef Lucci up like this, but what I can say is this:
Showing us that there are other characters out there who can grow rapidly in strength goes a long way towards making Luffy seem less like a completely unrepeatable god protagonist with zero flaws or limitations. If Oda would’ve had Luffy fodderize Lucci, then nobody would have been surprised and Luffy’s reputation as a generic messiah would’ve continued on un-checked.
Now however, we see that Luffy is far from the only “abnormally fast growing genius” out there. Even characters like Lucci, who most fans including myself had assumed was already at or near his maximum power level, still had a lot of growing to do and perhaps still isn’t even finished refining his strength. And him growing this much isn’t unbelievable as Lucci was always a genius and always had the possibility of awakening and training his Haki.
By showing us other characters who can still train and grow much stronger just like Luffy, Luffy looks less and less like a Demi-god, and more just like any other fast growing genius out there, and this in my opinion is a really good thing. It makes One Piece feel more like a living breathing world when we know that no matter how special our MC is, he is not some destiny child blessed by an invisible diety, not some video game protagonist who levels up at astronomical rates while everyone else stays at or near their starting level.
Idk. This shit makes the series more engaging to me, when other characters train and improve just like the MC does as long as it’s within reason. Other series like Black Clover do this too much I think, in Black Clover every characters gains huge strength increases every arc, but OP doing stuff like this in moderation is a really good thing.
I hope Oda does more things like this in the future, any and every decision he can make to make Luffy more relatable is a good thing.
Thoughts?
@SakazOuki @Sentinel @Blackbeard @Playa4321 @Veku @MarineHQ @Seth @AkainuTheGrimReaper @Chrono @kurwa @TheKnightOfTheSea @God Buggy @King7 @ShishioIsBack @HA001 OF THE RAIN @Yelan’s Minion etc